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Untitled Article
leading them Into associations , &c . arid disposing them to slight the principles common to all Christians * a ad to set an inordinate value upon those which are peculiar to Uiiitariaiiis . mo An exceptionis made in favour of "
missionary pr ^ acliiogj , conducted . on a proper plan , such as that of the able and eminent Mr .. Wright and others /' Mr « Fox ? in reply , maintains the necessity of-explaining what is meant by Christianity 9 when the term is used | and vindicates the Unitarian
associations , which are not novel , by setting forth their dbjects . The rejoinder of the Old Unitarian is more complete than under any of the foregoing heads ; and if he and Mr . Fox would amicably discuss the question
of what there is in Christianity common to all Christians , the result would , we doubt not , be favourable to truth and charity . If the ' controversy be a mere logomachy ? it would be still useful to have this ascertained
But which way soever the discussion ends , the New Unitarians are no more affected by it than the Old . No one can set up for another a measure of the value of truth * It is quite new for the Unitarians to be charged with being zealous above measure ; but
the Old Unitarian could scarcely be expected to forgive them this wrong , since he characterizes , disrespectfully we think , " hypothetically" he will say * Dr « Toulmin by a " fondness for running about , ' and Dr . Priestley by 64 exuberant zeal" ( Letters , pp . 48 ,
49 ) 0 The instances adduced of the censurable zeal of the New "Unitarians are peculiarly unhappy : respect for the Old Unitarians , the Presbyterians , for a century past , to whom we suppose the title will be given , should have checked the fling at the sociites ambulantes , the moveable association
meetings , which are as old as nonconformity 5 and reverence of piety should , we humbly suggest , have shielded from reproach the act of m < assembling together for the purpose of praying . " The last charge against the New ' Unitarians is disloyalty : the evidence
lie will not at once find comfort in the conviction , that he has wronged a large party of his fellow-christians , whom his religions profession would naturally lead Mm to protect and ® eive .
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is that there are marks of kindness hs this Magazine towards Bubnaparie and William Cobbett : it has even been suspected * says the Old Unitarian ^ that " certain Unitarian ministers / of the modern school and of its latest
discipline , have beeo desirous of propagating their religious faith with a view more widely to disseminate their political principles among the inferior classes of society /* -Mr . Fox in his reply again calls for proofs ; and expatiates upon the injustice and cruelty of such an accusation at such a time ?
«* when the suspicions of government are awake and its power uncontrolled /* To this the replication of the Old Unitarian is to us most unsatisfying : the substance of it is , that his suspicions were conveyed irs a hypothetical form , and that those who suspect and those who are suspected are alike unnamed and unknown . Is
not this the very point of which the New Unitarians complain > A general * sweeping charge is brought against a class of men , tending- to prejudice them ? already under sufficient odiuixip in the eyes of their neighbours * and whilst it attaches to everv one * 110
one can disprove it , because his own case may be alleged to be an exception . We know not to what passages in the Monthly Repository the Old Unitarian alludes His own Letter is
evidence enough that we do not approve of all the communications that we insert In the papers that have been properly our own , we have never cither asserted or insinuated any principles that we fear to avow , or that we do not regard as becoming scholars * gentlemen and Christians . We arb not ambitious of authorities , where
we are conscious of having reason and truth with us , but we will venture to say , that not a single sentiment in relation to public policy has ever appeared on these pages which has not been again and again avowed , defended and gloried in by the most < able 9 the most patriotic * and the purest of our
senators and statesmen * Knowing this , we are as iaidiffereat to political as to theological accusations ; though we are sorry when our brethren are our accusers , and our foes ( even ita appearance ) are those of our own household * Loyalty in on © of those generalities
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60 MevieWo ^^ Uniiarianism 9 Old and New o
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 60, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/60/
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